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Culture and Creativity

Cultural policy cooperation at the EU level

Cooperation on cultural policy between the European Commission and the 27 European Union (EU) Member States occurs in the Council of the EU’s related preparatory bodies –  the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council – and its Cultural Affairs Committee.

The Commission is accountable to the European Parliament and, in the field of culture, to its Committee on Culture and Education.

This cooperation also requires dialogue with civil society organisations, cultural stakeholders and other actors, such as cities and regions or international organisations, including the Council of Europe, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Cooperation with the Member States

The Open Method of Cooperation (OMC) is a practical and structured way to bring together representatives from EU Member States to encourage the exchange of good practices regarding the design of policies and funding schemes. The method fosters a common understanding of issues and helps to build consensus on solutions and their implementation.

Through the OMC, experts who have been appointed by Member States meet 5 to 6 times over 18 months to produce policy recommendations, manuals and toolkits shared throughout Europe. The Commission is responsible for organising the OMC, hosting most of its meetings, and supporting the work of the OMC groups with policy updates, and input, such as studies.

OMC expert groups have been meeting since 2008. Recent topics are:

During the 2015-2018 period (Work Plan for Culture 2015-2018), OMC groups produced the following reports:

Dialogue with cultural and creative sectors

The Commission commits to strengthen dialogue with organisations from the cultural and creative sectors in the New European Agenda for Culture. Such cooperation is one pre-requisite to the Agenda’s successful implementation.

The Commission brings together stakeholders and decision-makers to discuss key issues according to policy priorities and topics, considering sectoral developments and needs. It aims to strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in policy debates on culture at the European level, while encouraging these organisations to work in a more collaborative way.

Voices of Culture is the specific structured dialogue supported by the Commission since 2015. It provides a framework for discussions between EU civil society stakeholders and the Commission. Voices of Culture is currently run by the Goethe-Institut on behalf of the Commission.

Find the current and past themes addressed by the Voices of Culture dialogue on their website.

Find out more themes from previous editions.